August 28: The birthday of Natalia Gundareva, the actress who was rejected from the Shchukin Theatre on her first tryout.
On August 28, 1948, in Moscow, Natalya Gundareva, one of the leading theater and film actresses of the 1970s and 1980s, was born into a family of engineers. The admissions committee at the Shchukin Theatre School advised her to lose weight first, but a few years later, readers of the Soviet Screen magazine named her best actress of the year three times.
— So explain to your daughter what she needs to think about at 16: her high school diploma or love?
— About love...
- What?
- Oh. About the certificate, of course, about the certificate.
A draftswoman who became an engineer
During her school years, Gundareva attended the Young Muscovites Theater at the Palace of Pioneers. In tenth grade, she transferred to evening school and found work as a draftsman in a design bureau. She planned to become a design engineer, following in her mother's footsteps—she raised her daughter alone after her divorce from her father.
But after enrolling in the construction institute, she decided to try her luck at the Shchukin School. The examiners weren't impressed with her weight, and the admissions committee stated:
First lose weight, then come!
A year later, Gundareva finally entered the Shchukin Theatre School.
Mayakovsky Theatre: From Episodes to a State Prize
After graduating from college, she performed on the Mayakovsky Theatre stage. For the first few years, she did bit parts. She was discovered in 1972, at 24, after playing Marfinka in a television production of Goncharov's play "The Precipice."
In 1974, she made her debut in the leading role in Ostrovsky's production of "Bankrupt, or Our Own People—Let's Settle Accounts." She received the USSR State Prize for her role as Katerina Izmailova in "Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District."
Early films and Sweet Woman
She began acting in films in the early 1970s. In 1972, she played the spirited barmaid Nadya in Vitaly Melnikov's "Hello and Goodbye." She wasn't satisfied with her performance, but audiences liked her.
I looked at it and was horrified: they haven’t yet come up with a screen big enough to accommodate my back.
In 1975, she became famous after starring as candy factory worker Anya Dobrokhotova in Vladimir Fetin's film "Sweet Woman."
Is it my fault that I inspire love in young men?! Other women go south specifically for this.
So, should I cut back on my food intake?
In the television version of the play "Truffaldino from Bergamo" she was remembered for her role as Smeraldina, the witty lover of Truffaldino (Konstantin Raikin).
If I were given power, I would command that all unfaithful men would carry one green branch... Then the cities would turn into green and lush gardens!
"Autumn Marathon" and star roles at the turn of the decade
By the late 1970s, Gundareva had cemented her reputation as a dramatic actress. Readers of the Soviet Screen magazine named her the best actress of the year three times. Her starring roles during this period included the films "Autumn Marathon," "A Dormitory for the Lonely," and "Once Upon a Time, 20 Years Later."
In the first, she played Nina Buzykina, a woman tired of marriage and infidelity—the wife of a successful translator (Oleg Basilashvili). Gundareva was only 31 years old at the time of filming; her performance was again recognized with a state prize.
"Nina, do you need to buy anything? I'll have time after the seminar."
— Buy flowers… for the secretary.
— Hello! Why are you so silent and breathing? You could at least meow.
In "A Dormitory for Singles," she played Vera Golubeva, a textile mill worker and matchmaker. The film's script was written specifically with Gundareva in mind.
- Your marriage is my marriage, that is, a marriage in my work
— They write in the ads: “Dorms available for singles.” But when a person is alone, they can’t be happy.
In "Once Upon a Time 20 Years Later," Gundareva played the heroine's mother, Nadya Kruglova, brilliantly, even though she herself had no children.
— How do you manage to do everything: you are alone and have ten children?
- Yes, I wouldn’t be able to do anything on my own, but ten people help me.
I want to sleep day and night. For many, many years. I don't want anything anymore and I can't do anything. I thought: this is like a holiday... But no one understands anything. No one in the world understands me.
Seventy films, Nika and the State Duma
In total, Natalya Gundareva starred in 70 films, including "Dulcinea de Toboso," "Citizen Nikanorova Is Waiting for You," and "The Mistress of the Orphanage." In 1991, she received the Nika Award and the Montreal Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her role in Leonid Menaker's "A Dog's Feast."
She was a deputy of the State Duma of the first convocation from the Women of Russia faction.
Last years
She played her last major role in the 2001 TV series "Salome." That same year, she suffered a stroke and fell into a coma. She managed to recover and almost returned to normal life, but in 2002, she suffered a second stroke.
I can't be stopped. I can only be helped.
Natalia Gundareva died in 2005, at the age of 56, due to a third stroke (according to another version, a blood clot).
